Grant Announcement: HHS Awards $13 Million to Improve Access to Community-Based Maternal Support Services for Pregnant and Post-partum People

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced that it has awarded more than $13 million in grants to 11 organizations for its Healthy Families Community-Based Perinatal Health Initiative (COPHI) to develop innovative models for integrating community-based maternal support services into perinatal systems of care.

Considerable health disparities exist for pregnant and post-partum people. Black and American Indian/ Alaska Native women are three and two times more likely, respectively, to die from pregnancy-related complications than non-Hispanic White women. Hispanic women also experience higher rates of severe maternal morbidity compared to non-Hispanic White women.

Community-based maternal support services or COMSS are social and supportive services that address social determinants of health (SDOH), such as health literacy; pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting education; cultural and linguistic diversity; exposure to trauma; housing; food; and transportation. These services are provided during pregnancy, labor, and delivery and after delivery by trained individuals, such as doulas and community health workers. COMSS have been documented to be beneficial in assuring a continuum of care and improving health outcomes for pregnant and post-partum persons.

The project period for these grants begins on September 30, 2023. The awardees are:

*Project implemented in 4 Parishes in Louisiana: Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard.
**Project implemented in Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico.

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The Office of Minority Health (OMH) is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority and American Indian and Alaska Native populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. Through its demonstration projects, OMH supports the identification of effective approaches for improving health outcomes and promotes the dissemination and sustainability of these approaches.